Paddenstoelen 1892 - 1951

Janus de Winter made this print of mushrooms, using, I think, a woodblock. Look at how the black ink sits on the surface of the paper, not quite solid, a little broken. You can really sense the act of pressing the block onto the page. The image feels so immediate and intuitive, like a child’s drawing, but also, strangely, carefully considered. It’s all about contrasts: hard lines and soft shapes, light and dark, positive and negative space. The way the artist carves out the grass makes me think of Van Gogh’s nervous energy. There's this one mushroom in the center, slightly larger than the rest. The top of it is just this solid mass of black, but then you notice the details in the stem, these tiny vertical lines that give it a sense of volume. It feels so alive and mysterious. It’s like de Winter is showing us that art doesn't have to be perfect to be powerful, and there are endless ways of seeing and experiencing the world.